


Cats Over Manhattan

by Scattered_Irises



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Cats parody, Gen, Humor, Ryoga sings, Theatre
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:27:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25739557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scattered_Irises/pseuds/Scattered_Irises
Summary: In the midst of writing Manhattan Sweep, this idea was born. What if instead of writing a musical from scratch for the fic, why couldn’t it have just been a pre-existing musical? Like Cats?Kaito becomes the director of the Heartland production of Cats and is also blackmailed to play the lead. For those who want to finish Manhattan Sweep in a day instead of waiting all of August for it to be done.
Kudos: 3





	Cats Over Manhattan

**Author's Note:**

> My friend and I saw the Cats movie. It was my friend’s idea but he ditched me in the middle and I was forced to finish alone. It was traumatizing. 
> 
> Also, a fic from me is incomplete until Kaito gets insulted at least once for his fashion sense.

He had panicked, for the first time in years. 

"Cats!" he had blurted out after nervously looking around for inspiration. 

Akari’s eyebrows raised in surprise. 

"Cats? Your mom actually liked that musical?"

"Y...yeah...!"

The journalist smiles and rests a hand on her hips. 

"Then I’ll see you onstage in fur and whiskers!" laughs Akari as she runs off. 

_Bloody journalist blackmail_.

$$$

And that’s how Kaito got here, sweating in his furry makeup and stupid whiskers. At least he wasn’t alone, though. Yuma had miraculously dragged along Ryoga and the Numbers Club to join in this madcap musical that all of Heartland was anticipating to see. Why it was anticipated, he had no idea. He’s watched the musical, the movie and the poems that the movie and musical were based off of. After all of that, he still doesn’t understand why hundreds and thousands of people had flocked to the show, but he now has a basic idea of what consuming hallucinogens feels like.

"I look like a fucking idiot," mutters Ryoga under his grizzled coat and busted up ears. 

"Don’t we all..," mutters Kaito back. 

"You don’t get a say in this," hisses Ryoga. "This was all your fault. Besides, aren’t skin tight clothes your specialty? This is just your normal outfit but with fur, you disgusting deviant."

Kaito curls his lip and bites back a retort just as the curtains pull apart. 

"Act your part, Grizabella, and maybe I won’t dance as cat-like as the dance coordinator (Cathy, out of all people) wanted," threatens Kaito.

Crotches. Furry crotches. Everywhere. Kaito still doesn’t understand why people like this musical. Frankly, the writer of this short fic can’t either.

The overture for the prologue begins and Kaito takes a deep breath as the cast begins to walk (or crawl out) to the stage. 

They begin to sing about what the hell a Jellicle cat is. Even after months of rehearsing, singing and dancing, Kaito (And everyone else) still have no idea what a Jellicle cat exactly is.

Massaging his brows as the prologue song drones on, Kaito stretches his legs one more time for his ballet solo to signify the beginning of the trip to hell. He prays to whoever’s up there (A dragon??) to protect him from further humiliating himself. Actually, he’s pretty sure he’s reached rock bottom. 

_ Do you know how to go to the heavyside layer? _

No, not really. And he doesn’t really want to go or know anyways.

_ Can you ride on a broomstick to far away places? _

Are they cats or are they witches?

The obnoxious lyrics dance through Kaito’s mind and he prays to not have a migraine, not at this moment although he sure as hell would like one. Kaito continues to stretch his legs and arms in preparation for his ballet performance, all the while trying to blur the lyrics out but also keep an ear out for his cue line at the same time.

When he hears Yuma’s (Munkustrap) line of: 

_ Do I actually see with my own very eyes _

_ A man who's not heard of a Jellicle cat? _

_ What's a Jellicle cat? _

Kaito bites his lip and inadvertently tastes the gross face paint on his lips. Here he goes, Victoria the ballerina cat. Twirling, shimmying onto the stage. What kind of a cat even dances like that?

$$$

Kaito looks into Ryoga’s eyes and to the horror of all the other cats, touches him.

"You mustn’t!" gasps Rio (Bombalurina). "Grizzabella is..."

"Filth!" hisses Kotori (Demeter). 

Ignoring the other cats, Kaito (As Victoria) turns to Faker (Deuteronomy) and then back at Ryoga. 

"Please, sing," urges Kaito. 

Ryoga wets his lips and looks up at Faker. In his thick fur coat and grotesque cat makeup, Faker looked even worse than usual. Yet no matter how much Kaito protested against allowing his father to join, his father insisted for he had "always wanted to try community theater." 

Yeah, more like ruin Kaito’s life. 

"Well?" prompts Faker. 

Dramatically Ryoga turns to the crowd, his sparkling eyes and trembling lips making everyone stop and lean closer to the stage. Somewhere, Kaito hears Cathy cheer in approval. The music begins to play and Ryoga takes a step towards the audience. 

_ Midnight, not a sound from the pavement. _

_ Has the moon lost her memory? She is smiling alone. _

_ In the lamp light the whithered leaves collect at my feet, _

_ And the wind, begins to moan. _

_ Memory, all alone in the moonlight. _

_ I can dream of the old days, life was beautiful then. _

_ I remember, the time I knew what happiness was. _

_ Let the memory live again. _

Damn. That boy could sing. As Grizabella’s solo fills the hearts, eyes and ears of the audience, Ryoga appears to be entirely transformed into the tragic glamor cat who had seen better days. His movements were slow, plodding and reminiscent. A diva struck by hard times. As he made his way through the stage, Kaito noted that everyone, including the cats on the stage, were enraptured by his performance. 

No matter how many times he heard Ryoga sing, he was always awestruck. Ryoga sparkled on stage, the surly teenager all but gone. If there was something that would save this show from going to utter flaming garbage dump hell, it would be Ryoga and his show-stopping solo. 

As Ryoga’s voice builds in passion and splendor, Kaito hears the strings reaching their climax and closes his eyes for Ryoga’s strongest moment in the song.

_ Touch me, its so easy to leave me _

_ All alone with the memory, of my days in the sun. _

_ If you touch me, you'll understand what happiness is.  
_

Ryoga’s powerful voice blooms into a powerful belt, his voice seemingly competing with the instruments. Kaito swears he sees some people in the audience grow misty eyed. To confirm the fact that Ryoga had succeeded in moving hearts, he hears muffled sniffling. The young man’s expression is filled with tenderness as he sings the final line, his voice heart rendering and soft, as if he was about to shatter. 

_ Look, a new day has begun. _

The audience is silent for a few seconds. And then, like a thousand fireworks, applause showers the stage. One by one, the audience stands, regaling Ryoga with a standing ovation. Ryoga stands in the spotlight, sweat beading his brow and his chest heaving. He shines, ever so brightly. Cries of _encore_ and praise shaky with sniffles and emotion erupt from their dazzled audience. And that is when Kaito realizes that Ryoga is the true star of the show and that Heartland had found itself a new superstar. 

$$$

"Your voice isn’t that bad, but...Ryoga..," breathes Akari. "That kid’s gonna go far."

In the cafe’s corner, Kaito sits back with the journalist, finally freed from the threat of blackmail for preying on her brother as a fake karaoke partner. He smiles and looks at the news articles praising Ryoga’s scintillating performance.

"Yeah," he says. 

Perhaps now, Akari would have another person to pester.  



End file.
